All that's missing is a 'white Christmas' joke

We have the feeling Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc will be a little more careful when he plans his skit for the Galveston municipal Christmas party next year — it seems a "naughty elf" bit he and a couple of other city officials did at this year's party didn't go over too well. (You'd think the very idea of a "naughty elf" skit would signal trouble ahead, wouldn't you?)

At the party, LeBlanc climbed onto Santa's lap — Santa was played by Galveston Economic Development Partnership President Jeff Sjostrom — and asked for a "chocolate bunny." If you have a funny feeling about where this is headed, you're right: The chocolate bunny in question turned out to be Galveston police Sgt. Annie Almendarez, a black woman dressed as a Playboy bunny. LeBlanc and Almendarez said they thought the gag was well-received — until the next day, when two women who work at the police department complained about Almendarez's skimpy costume and the racial overtones of the joke. "Everyone seemed to enjoy it," LeBlanc said. "I even had several people tell me how funny they thought it was. It wasn't until the next day that I received the complaints."

Turns out LeBlanc wrote the skit, but Almendarez was the one who suggested he add the word chocolate. "It was my idea," she told The Galveston County Daily News. "I'm sorry if I offended anyone by calling myself chocolate, but I am." LeBlanc said he was sorry if anyone at the party was offended and that he wishes he hadn't performed that part of the skit, but Almendarez was unapologetic: "I'm a police officer. I've seen worse stuff than this. Come on. We're adults, and this was an adult party," she said.